Our Launch and PLUG 2015

Published 13 May 2015

Performance 21 March 2015
at Royal Conservatoire of Scotland

On March 21st 2015 we took to the stage for our first concert as an ensemble to a sell-out crowd at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. We premièred SIX new pieces by Euan Ferguson, Tom David Wilson, Nora Marazaite, Richard Greer, Gordon McPherson and Michael McEneny.

Ken Walton from the Scotsman noted: ‘It was a promising start for the GNME ensemble. Cottis found positive energy in her players, not least a sense of textural definition that fed through most of the short performances.’

Last week we arrived at the Royal Conservatoire, invited to perform at their annual fesitval of new student compositions: PLUG. We would be performing brand new work from Matt Zurowski, Martin Keary, Sam Beagles and giving a second performance of Nora Marazaite’s ‘Ubik’ from our Launch.

It was a great experience to work with the composers and to perform in front of an enthusiastic crowd.

Michael Tumelty from the Herald noted: ‘After the interval, the excellent Glasgow New Music Expedition ensemble of strings and winds, led by the RSNO’s William Chandler and conducted cleanly and tightly by Jessica Cottis, dispatched four good pieces with elan and dash: Samuel Beagles’ Bristle, which did what it said on the tin, restless though yearning to soar, Martin Keary’s brilliant near-pastiche, Double-booked with Strangers, which fed Haydn and Shostakovich through a madcap mincer patented by Charles Ives, Nora Marazaite’s stunning exploration of states of stillness and drama, Ubik, and Matthew Zurowski’s breathtaking Cold Comfort, whose computerised crescendo was superbly-crafted if a fraction overlong.’